Kasich Confirms Trump Campaign Approached Him for V.P.—and that He Still Doesn’t Like Trump

Ohio governor John Kasich, one of Donald Trump’s most vocal critics, confirmed a report that the man who had viciously attacked him as a sloppy and a poor governor had been interested in making Kasich a very powerful vice president.

The New York Timesreported in July that prior to Mike Pence being picked, Trump’s son, Donald Trump, Jr., had called a Kasich aide and promised to put the possible future veep in charge of all domestic and foreign policy. Trump, himself, would be in charge of “making America great again.”

“I never got a call. Apparently my aides did,” Kasich told__Jake Tapper__ on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, saying that an aide had relayed the report to him and it still seemed unbelievable.

Asked whether he would have seriously considered it, Kasich said he was never tempted, and joked he might be “the worst vice president in the world.” “I might have agreed to be George Washington's vice president,” he allowed. “But I got the second best job in the country. You know…governor of Ohio.”

Kasich is one of the few Republican presidential candidates who refused to endorse Trump, and continued telling Tapper that he still wasn’t sure whether he would even vote Republican in this election. Kasich, who chose not to attend the Republican National Convention despite the fact that it took place in his own home state, said that he did not regret his decision. “If I wasn't prepared to go there and get up and endorse a nominee, I just thought it was inappropriate to go into that convention hall.”

Trump himself is starting to tank in the polls after a week of fallout from his comments attacking the Muslim Khan family, whose son, an American soldier, was killed while fighting in Iraq. Kasich distanced himself from Trump’s heinous remarks by noting that he talks to grieving Gold Star families in his own state, and that it is “excruciatingly difficult” to watch their sorrow.

Meanwhile, not all former Trump antagonists remain as steadfast. On Fox News Sunday, Newt Gingrich, who criticized Trump earlier in the week, praised him for rebounding from his attacks on both the Khans and the Republicans who criticized him. “I think he’s gotten the message,” he said, pointing out that Trump had walked back on his un-endorsements of John McCain, Kelly Ayotte, and Paul Ryan.